Tegalalang Region

I wake up early and drive my scooter for what it seems like an eternity. The sun was slowly rising when I turn left at the round about with the giant God Statue, the gigantic and beautiful Archer Patung Arjuna. By the little amount of honking in the street, it was clear that the only people awoke were going to work.

The Tegallalang Rice Terrace are a UNESCO preserved site, a touristic attraction that any visitor staying in Ubud must visit. Once you arrive in the area, you drop the keys of your scooter to a Valet, then enter one of the small cafe along the cliff and oder some food and drink. You can hop on a swing and ask for an Instagram photo of you flying in the sky with the green and luxurious rice paddies in the background. This is gorgeous. This is also a type of tourism I’m not ready to live that day.

For no reason other than to feel immersed in the “real Balinese countryside”, I decide to skip the actual Tegallalang Rice Terrace, and drive all around, in the race fields, without a real destination.

The day started like it finished. My music in my headphones, kilometers and kilometers of dirt road, pot holes the size of a chicken nest, and solitude. A heavy grey cotton candy sky was giving contrast to the landscape and the regular rain shower made me stop along the road under a banana tree. Taking the time to observe the temples and the vegetation was my only goal that day.

Sometimes, I cross path with ladies holding baskets on their head. Sometimes I insensitively wake up a dog from a nap with the throbbing sound of my motorcycle. Most of the time, I’m alone and I’m content.